In a hospital and like environments, patients are often connected to one or more vital and other biological indicator (“vital sign” and “vitals”) monitoring devices. Such devices measure, for example, patient vital signs including heart rate, temperature, peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (“SpO2”), blood pressure and others. Other patient vital signs may also be monitored. Often, to obtain an accurate measurement of one or more of such vital signs, a nurse or other medical practitioner (for purposes herein, collectively, a “nurse”) will often personally administer a vital sign monitoring device to the patient. For example, a nurse might use a hand-held sensor to take the patient's temperature. It is to be appreciated, however, that such an approach often requires awakening the patient or otherwise disturbing the patient's state of being. For some patients, such as young children, the mentally ill, violent prisoners and older patients, the providing of such direct patient monitoring may disrupt a patient's sleep cycle, delay healing, cause undue patient stress, put the nurse at risk, or result in an unexpected or undesired reaction. For example, the patient's temperature, heart rate or other vitals may rise or otherwise change due to the nurse's presence. The raising of such other vital signs may impact the accuracy and/or trending of the vital then being monitored. Further, such direct monitoring often requires the physical presence of the nurse next to the patient. In many settings, such presence may be interrupted or precluded by other events or conditions (such as may arise in an isolation ward) and/or the needs of other patients. Often this need for direct monitoring and the preclusion thereof, results in unreliable and aperiodic sampling. Accordingly, the monitoring of a patient's given vital sign(s) often will not and cannot occur continuously or even on a predetermined or given schedule. As such, direct, in-person monitoring of patient vital signs is often undesirable or impractical.
Another approach for monitoring patient vital signs has recently arisen. Per this approach, a sensor is physically connected to the patient, with the sensor being connected by a wire to a monitoring device, which may have a local and/or remote readout capability (for example, at a nursing station). For example, an SpO2 sensor is often connected to a patient's index finger via a clamp type device connected to an electrical wire, which in turn is connected to a local monitoring and alarm device. As any patient that has been connected to such a device can attest, such approach of indirectly monitoring a patient's vital sign (in this example SpO2) is undesirable for a wide variety of psychological and physical reasons.
First, the ever present clamp and cabling is very obtrusive, especially when the patient is connected to intra-venous (IV) lines and other treatment and/or monitoring devices. The presence of this ever present and obtrusive monitoring device reinforces to a patient that they are ill and often manifests as inducing additional patient stress. Likewise, the associated cabling connecting a sensor on a patient to a monitoring device, or other fixed or mobility challenging equipment often renders an otherwise simple task, such as leaving one's bed to attend to one's personal needs, an ordeal requiring nursing assistance. Given the time constraints on such nursing assistance, these hard-wired approaches can in turn induce undue stress and/or discomfort in the patient.
Second, the ever present SpO2 clamp, for example, is often uncomfortable as it and similar monitoring devices require a certain amount of pressure on one's finger that is ever present and thus disturbs the patient's desired state of tranquility, whether it be sleep, resting, while changing of television channels, or otherwise.
Third, these types of sensors are routinely falling off or otherwise sending false and inaccurate signals. Certain patient populations may also be prohibited from using finger and similar sensors due to peripheral neuropathy, poor peripheral perfusion or other conditions. While some providers have introduced forehead based vital monitoring devices and while such an approach is commonly more acceptable to a majority of patient populations, currents approaches are obtrusive. A patient knowingly connected, via sensors on their head, to diagnostic devices induces patient stress. Further, current approaches often result in undesirable audible alarms generated by locally present diagnostic devices. Such alarms further induce patient stress, for example, by disturbing the patient's rest. Such false alarms also often impinge on a nurse's already often full shift schedules.
Fourth, due to the nature of the types of sensors used, such sensors typically support monitoring of only a single vital. Accordingly, a patient often ends up connected to multiple devices and multiple sensors, each monitoring a single vital sign, and each being often very obtrusive upon the patient's comfort and mental and physical well-being. These combinations of elements, i.e., the need for monitoring of multiple vital signs, obtrusive sensors, and/or the need for frequent nurse presence result in undue patient physical and mental stress. Such stresses and their associated disruptions, often preclude reliable and continues monitoring of a patient's vital signs.
Notably, various recent designs of SpO2 and similar sensors have been developed that seek to address some of the above concerns. none provide the easy to use and non-obtrusive characteristics of the various embodiments of the present disclosure, as provided below. Notably, various of these newer designs attempt to address the issues of finger based sensors by affixing a sensor on a patient's forehead using an adhesive and a strap, one such approach is recommended for use with the OXIMAX™ and/or MAX-FAST™ sensors developed by Covidien Corporation. While these types of sensors generally provide more accurate readings of a SpO2 than a finger based SpO2 sensor, they are undesirable due to their obtrusive application, with adhesives and straps and the need for reapplication of adhesives when prolonged use (e.g., for more than a few days) is needed.
While various approaches have been proposed for monitoring one or more patient vital signs, such approaches typically require the use of a strap, clamp, glue, headband or the like for a given sensor. It is a given that patients typically do not react positively (i.e., without some modicum of stress) to being “strapped” to sensors or to being attached to fixed diagnostic devices. Accordingly, a long felt and unfulfilled need exists for devices, systems and methods which facilitate the real-time, continuous and unobtrusive monitoring of patient vital signs.